Saturday, January 27, 2007

You, Me, and Dupree (2006)

Owen Wilson plays amiable loser Randy Dupree in this soon-to-be-forgotten comedy. Dupree is a lazy, manipulative leech who can't keep a job, so of course he travels by bicycle. Wearing a hockey helmet. There are several scenes that enforce the bicyclist-as-juvenile stereotype, including this clip where Dupree grabs a baby's bottle to refresh himself on a ride with Matt Dillon (as Carl Peterson, host to parasite Dupree), and another in which Dupree enlists the neighborhood children to help him put up posters to find the missing Carl. There's even an online game (a real trend: see also the Reno 911!:Petty Theft Bicycle game), so you can re-enact the scene and relive the utter silliness of using a bicycle to get around. Pre-eminent cycling ambassador Lance Armstrong has a cameo.

I think that you're entirely missing the point of Dupree. He's not a loser, did you not see the movie's best scene when he gives the Career Day Speech to explain the group of "languishers" who will have to take a lot of crap from people (ex. those who would call them "losers")? He is in a state of finding himself, which he eventually does by continuing to be himself. By the way, Lance sold himself out? Really? Read his book (Dupree did) and you'll find that he himself spent a year languishing and he later became the greatest cyclist in history and a model human being who gets my full respect. I thought it was great that Lance had a cameo in this movie for that reason. Vive le Lance et vive le Dupree!